MineZ: Land of Terror
by EpicPwner333
Summary: In this dark, personal story set in the tragic world of MineZ, one lonely survivor tries to survive in this harsh new landscape. Where the simplest resources are rare, and zombies roam the streets, he finds he has many enemies: bandits, hunger, thirst, and of course, the undead. But in this new, terrifying enviroment, he finds that sometimes, the greatest enemy is...yourself.
1. Awakening

"..."

"..."

"Agh!"

With a start, my eyes snapped open. My throat was parched, and my entire body felt like it had been beaten and left to die in the dirt. The sun glared down on upon me, and I couldn't see anything at all.

_Was that what happened? Where am I!? Who am I? How did I get here? Where is here?_

My head was suddenly filled with questions. I slapped myself in the head, and tried to get my thoughts in order. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the glaring sunlight enough so as to render me able to see.

I was lying on a beach, facing wide, seemingly endless ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see. Turning around, I was treated to the sight of a massive pine forest at my back.

_What happened...?_

Looking at myself, I found that I was wearing a pair of jeans, black boots, hefted a small backpack, and had a thick leather shirt on.

_Possibly for protection? Protection from what?_

Looking down, I saw that scattered around my body were several items: a small bottle filled with water, a bandage, and a wooden stick, sharpened. I placed the water bottle and bandage in my backpack, but a voice in the back of my head told me that I should carry my makeshift weapon around with me.

_Now, where to? It seems as if there is no sign of civilization anywhere around here...which way shall I head? Left._

I turned left and started walking along the coast. It was...unreal. There wasn't a noise in the forest, save for the crunch of my boots on the grass, and my breathing.

_This is really creepy._

A faint mist settled over the landscape, limiting my vision somewhat. My nerves felt like they were raw as I continued to tramp along, not knowing where I was going, but not really caring, either. Bored, I started to try and remember what happened, anything at all.

_Who am I? No idea. Why can't I remember? __What is this? _

I paused, and walked down next to the water. I looked at my blurred reflection, and I guessed that my hair was black, and that I had fairly tanned skin. Also, I realized I was pretty tall. Unable to detect any actual distinctive features due to the water constantly moving about, I shook my head and continued walking. Suddenly, a fearful cry rang through the trees.

_What the hell?_

I ducked behind the nearest tree, afraid of generating any more noise. A crashing came ringing out, coming closer, and then farther, closer farther... I gritted my teeth, wondering if I was imagining the sound.

_No, there it goes again. Faint, but definitely there. Oh God, is it coming closer?_

I sat there, rigid as the tree that I was hiding behind. For a moment, it seemed as if the crashing was coming from ten feet away. Heavy breathing registered in my brain.

_Is it mine? What else could be breathing out there...?_

Holding my breath, I shut my eyes and stood there, waiting for the end, for that monster whose presence I was certain of. Finally, the noise faded away, this time for good. Still, I was too scared to peek out. I thought I could hear my own heartbeat as I stood there. Eventually, I summoned enough courage to slowly lean out, looking in the direction that the noise had come from.

_Holy crap._

Subconsciously, I held out my weapon further. There, no more than ten feet away from my position, were some trampled grass. That particular spot had some unusually high grass, so it was impossible to tell if something indead had walked up so close to me, and then walked away. My breathing seemed to get all the louder as I continued walking. Finally, I came across a field.

* * *

A figure stood there, in the middle of the field. It was unarmed, as far as I could tell.

_Why is being armed so important?_

"Hello?"

No response.

"Hey, you there! Where are we?"

Still nothing.

"Dude!"

Finally, the man seemed to notice me. He turned towards my voice. I recoiled in horror.

_What the **hell** is going on?_

He was dressed in shabby, torn clothes, and looked like he hadn't washed in weeks. More importantly, he was splattered in blood nearly from head to toe. He started running toward me.

"Man, calm down! What the heck happened to you-"

I didn't finish the sentence before he ran full tilt into me. Caught off-guard, I was knocked down into the grass. Before I could react, the man bent down, and bit me in the arm. Blood spurted from the wound.

"Ahh! Help!"

I scrambled backwards on all fours. He got ready to bite me again, but I managed to kick him in the face, sending him reeling back. Clutching my bleeding arm, I stumbled off, away from him. I may have gotten twenty feet before I tripped and fell down on my face. Rolling over, I was terrified to see the man almost upon me.

Realizing that my wooden stick-weapon had been lodged in my belt, I pulled it out, and held it in front of me as much as my shaking hands allowed, shut my eyes, and screamed as the man jumped at me. A shock to my hands told me that I had unwittingly stabbed him through, and a second later I flipped him off, and shakily stood up.

I must have jumped back several feet when the man, wooden stick still lidged in his chest, screamed out and started clawing at the air, trying to get at me. Frozen in a sort of horrified fascination, I watched as the life slowly left the man.

"Th-thank you..."

I bent down next to the man, guilt-stricken. What was he talking about?

_What have I done?_

"I'm so sorry! Please, who are you? Let me help you!"

"You've helped me enough. I was a zombie back there. Oh Maria...Lenev...Notch, I'll miss them..."

And with that, he slumped down, finally dead. I stood there for a minute, shocked. Then, all the adrenalin, all the terror, all the fear of the past few moments came rushing back to, overwhelming me. I sank down to my knees, crying. Lying there, I started shaking.

* * *

Several minutes later, I finally regained control.

_It might be a good idea to see if that guy had anything useful on him, I guess. What am I going to do about my arm?_

Stooping down, I rifled through the dead man's pockets, coming up with a single packaged cookie, and a small metal bar. Seeing no point in having an empty backpack, I placed both items in it. Again, jolts of pain shot up my arm, and more blood started seeping from the bite.

_Say, I do have a bandage. Doi. _

I attached the bandage to my wound, but found that the blood was making it start to slide off. After fiddling with it for a minute, I finally bent down, ripped off a piece of the dead man's t-shirt, and wrapped it around my arm.

_That ought to last for some time. Now, back to going up the coast...and finding out what the heck happened here._

**A/N Alright, I'll try and keep these author's notes to the bare minimum. This will be a very personal story. To the other MineZ writers, sorry if it seems like I was copying you, but I've had this chapter in my folder for a _long_ time. Thanks for the inspiration, though. **

**Until Next time, please, Read and Review!**

**PS A New Civilization is NOT dead. Just on a shared slate.**


	2. Grimdale

**There are several references to real places in Grimdale here. (spoilers!) And one thing that doesn't exist in the "real" map. See if you can spot** them!

And so I marched on. The silence...it seems crazy, but I could _hear_ the silence. It pervaded my very soul, enveloping my body. I swear, I would have gone crazy if it weren't for the slight rustle in the trees every now and then from a gust of wind.

_What was that?_

I stopped and stood still, cupping my ear in the direction from which I thought I had heard a noise.

_There it is again!_

A small noise, a murmur, really came through like a physical force in my ear. What it was, I had no idea. But it was coming from the direction I was walking in. I started running along, desperate for anything besides this cursed, endless forest.

* * *

With my stomach growling, I finally stopped running. Panting, I doubled over to catch my breath. When my heavy breathing subsided, I realized that the sound i had been chasing this entire time was now much clearer. Perhaps that's a bad description; the one sound had now grown into dozens of lesser ones. screams, loud crashes, the crackling of fires, even explosions. They seemed to be coming over the hill in front of me.

_Man, what is happening over that hill? More of those..."zombies"? That's what that man called himself._

I stood there, mulling over those questions.

_Boy am I hungry..._

Making up my mind, I narrowed my eyes and started over the hill that separated me from whatever was happening down there.

* * *

The hill seemed to last forever, as my entire body stood on edge for what was down there. The sound of utter chaos still crashed all around me, and as I rounded the hill, I was blinded by the glare. With an inner chill, I found that it was almost sunset.

_That can't be good. _

Before I was able to carry on that train of thought, my vision cleared and I stood slightly above a walled city. I couldn't see very well inside it, but there was dark smoke rising from a dozen raging fires, and there were many, many figures moving about down in the streets that I could see.

_I don't have any other choice. Maybe I will find answers down there._

A minute of walking, and I found myself nearing the foot of the city walls. Screams and crashing still ringing throughout my head, I held up my weapon, now battered and seemingly on the edge of breaking.

_Not good. What will I do without this thing, I do not know._

Seeing no readily available entrance, I started slowly walking along then perimeter. I rounded the corner of the wall, and found the entrance. I started for it, but then a man, dressed in roughly the same leather tunic as me, sprinted out of the gateway, screaming. Following closely behind were several blood splattered men and women, again similar to the man I had murdered earlier.

The group ran behind a grove of trees, and I cringed as I heard the screams intensify from the man, before suddenly stopping.

_Jeezums. Now's my chance!_

I started running for the entrance, weapon at the ready. Right before I got to it, I was knocked to the dirt by a massive explosion. The whole left corner of the entrance wall had been blown away. Undaunted, I got back up to a strangely silent word.

_I'm deaf. Great. I hope it's temporary..._

I bounded inside. A large inn was all that greeted my eyes.

_The city must be beyond this building._

A sign read: _"__Welcome to Grimdale"_ Three ways to the city beckoned. The main lobby was occupied by a soldier clad in a full suit of iron armor, slashing at three of those crazy, blood-covered people with a sword.

_Zombies._

I stepped forward to help him, but then the section of roof between me and him cracked and collapsed, on fire. I stepped back from the sudden wave of intense heat that enveloped me, and instead turned right and headed in that entrance. A small room caught my eye, with a sign that read "Reading Room". I stepped inside, and saw a small chest that lay off to one side.

_Looks promising._

I carefully opened, barely hearing the weak creak it gave off over the raging sound of the anarchy around me and my current hearing impediment. I cursed under my breath as all that was stored in there was an leather tunic identical to the one that I wore. Seeing nothing else to use it for, I picked it up to stuff into my backpack. However, I saw that there was a perfectly good-looking apple hidden under it.

_An apple. Hooray. Seriously though, I am quite hungry._

I ran out of the room, and into the city. Ahead of me, at the end of the cramped street, were several "normal" people running along, being chased by zombies. Again, looking left, two normal people were slashing at each other with swords. Bodies lay everywhere. Blood splattered the walls.

Seeing the some people (I couldn't tell if they were normal humans or zombies) run down my street, I ducked into a nearby department store. I caught my breath yet again as they ran past the windows. I looked around. The inside of the store looked like it already had been picked through, but as I rummaged through the remains of the shelving, my hand clenched the handle of something.

I pulled out a cheap, common stone pickaxe. I looked around for something better, but it was the best there was. I let out a long sigh, and stepped back out into the world. Most of the shock from the explosion had wore off, and my hearing almost fully restored.

A man was sprawled in front of me as I walked out, his backpack spilling out its contents on the ground. I saw many useful things in there, but first grabbed a bandage, a bundle of wheat, and a packaged cookie. Before I had a chance to grab anything else, an arrow whizzed by my face. I turned in shock, and found a man in some armor, drawing back another arrow on his bow.

"Back away from the loot, dude! I'll shoot!"

I ran down the street, obeying his command. A zombie lept out at me from a building, but I managed to duck, and he sailed right over me. I kept on running, leaving him behind.

_Heck yeah. I got this in the ba-_

My rather proud thought was interrupted by turning the corner. There, down at the end of the street, were a dozen zombies, all running in my general direction.

_I'm dead._

I frantically looked around. Seeing nothing, I felt panic welling up in my chest.

"Over here!"

I spun. I didn't see the person that had shouted the warning, but I saw a sewer manhole entrance in the street. I dove down into it.

I didn't know where it would lead me.

And hearing the cries of the crazed zombies seemingly right behind me, nor did I care.

**R&R!**


	3. Sewer, Part I

**Just to clear things up a bit, the main character is male. Sorry if I confused you...**

I shut my eyes and held my hands out, trying to lessen the shock of the fall. I was rather relieved, however, when I found myself diving into a pool of water, instead of hitting the cold hard floor.

That's when I realized I was in a _sewer_.

"Yech!"

I was covered in filthy gunk and soaked with dirty sewer water as I hauled myself out.

_Maybe it would be a good idea to try and find the person who called for me to come down here in the first place..._

I looked around. It was very dark.

_Idiot. Your eyes are covered in gunk._

With that revelation, I pulled off some . . . I don't even know what it was, nor do I care. I saw there was a person holding a torch in front of me.

"Did you lose them?" the figure asked. I was still too disoriented to tell if the voice was male or female.

_Oh wait. There _were_ zombies after me when I jumped in here._

I looked up, through the manhole, to the sliver of dark sky above. For some reason, the zombies had not followed through the manhole.

"Yeah, I think so-"

I found the figure holding a drawn-back bow.

_You have got to be kidding me._

"Please, just give me some food, and I'll let you go. We need it..." the figure informed me.

_I am **so**__ not giving food to this stupid thief._

I slowly put my pickaxe down, and then raised my hands in tha air. Satisfied that I was unarmed, the figure slowly moved forward.

"Again, I'm really sorry to do this...but I have to. Just give me some food." the person stammered.

_I still have my wooden thing weapon...whatever. _

"Right, right. I hope you're happy with me starving out there. This is my last bit of food." I muttered, reaching into my pack.

For the first time, I could make out the figure as my head started to clear up. "It" was a she, but that's all I could tell.

She was taken aback by my comment. "What do you mean? I don't more people to di-"

I caught her off guard as I pulled out my wooden weapon out of my backpack, and tacked her to the floor.

"I'll be damned if I'm going back up there without any food!" I snarled, inwardly surprised at my own words.

"And I'll be damned if I let those refugees starve!" she spat back.

She looked around, and spotted my pickaxe lying on the ground.

_Crap._

"Don't go for it!" I yelled.

_Too late._

Her arm shot out, grabbing ahold of the handle of the pick. I arced my arm back, but hesitated for a second.

_Can you do it? Can you kill a fellow, normal human being?_

She started to bring up the pickaxe.

_Yes, I can._

And my weapon came slashing down.

* * *

To our rather mutual surprise, the heavily damaged weapon simply splintered apart when it hit her heavy jacket.

_You fool. You _would_ kill someone else. You incredible fool._

We both just sat there for a few seconds in shock. We were both pumped with adrenalin from the fight, and all the tension seemed to drain from us. Finally, she started shaking, and rolled off to one side.

_I am so glad that weapon didn't kill her. What was I thinking?_

"Sorry about that." I managed to stutter.

_Weeeeak._

I got up, and walked over to where her bow had landed. I scooped it up, and handed it to her.

She looked up. "Yeah, yeah. Please, though, do you have any food?"

I laughed. "You just don't give up, do you? Why do you need it?"

"Follow me." she commanded, and started running down the hallway.

I took one last look at the pieces of my old weapon. I remembered the time I had killed with it . . .

_I'm not sorry to see that go._

However, as I picked up my pickaxe, I was inwardly thankful of that weapon.

_I may have killed someone with it. But I_ **_failed _**_to kill another person with it . . . and that's something to be proud of, right?_

**Alright, that was a fairly short chapter (838 words...). I am sorry on the wait, but sometimes crap happens, right? Don't worry, our character won't have companionship for long, though. Muahahahahah!**

**On the other side, though, there will be some recurring characters, hopefully just enough to keep our protagonist's sanity. For those of you who play MineZ, you ought to be familiar with all the locations in this story. If you haven't played MineZ, but have a Minecraft account, try it out. You shall regret nothing.**

**And finally, please review. Review, review, review! It really makes my day!**

**Reviews + More Reviews = Happy author = More chapters, faster!**


	4. Sewer, Part II

**Hmmm. So I specifically ask for reviews, and none come. Ah well, now have 150+ views, so thats pretty good for only 3 chapters. . ****.**

The sewers seemed to be endless. I was wierded out, since although Grimdale was a rather large city, surely it couldn't be _this _large, right?

Sensing my apprehension, my companion finally broke the silence between us.

"So, um, sorry about earlier." she stammered.

"Meh, it's fine. Actually, I should be apoligizing, I guess." I replied.

_I nearly killed you. And I would have, too, if my weapon hadn't been so damaged._

"For what?" she laughed. "I nearly killed _you._"

"Where are we going? This tunnel seems to go on forever. . . I have no idea where we are!"

"Yeah, again, sorry about that. We're kinda suspicious of everyone, so we need to confuse anyone trying to come to our base."

"Who's 'we'"

She grinned slyly. "You really want to know?"

"Well it would be rather nice . . ."

"Fine. I'm only doing this because I'm starting to trust you."

"A minute ago you were aiming a drawn bow at my heart."

"Ah, but that was nothing personal. I bet half the people I come across would gladly give some food if they knew exactly what is was for. The other half, though-"

"Would still try and kill you." I finished.

_This is really nice._ _It feels so . . . gratifying to talk like this with another human being. After that time ot in the woods, its great to have someone to break the silence with._

"Well, anyways, I'm just helping out this group of refugees who are hiding in the Grimdale Sewers. Can't tell you where, but the Sewers are pretty big. I'm one of a few people who found them and decided to help find food for 'em.

"What sort of refugees?"

A lot of regular families, orphans, few fighters. I mean – I don't consider myself much of a fighter, but I'm better than most of _them_. I used to go up to Grimdale just to forage for food, but, then I found it was much simpler just to 'borrow' some food from passing people.

"Like me . . ."

"Yeah. Hey, face it, I saved your life by calling you into the sewers."

"Whatever. Are we there yet?"

"Yes, actually."

A growing light ahead, quite literally at the end of the tunnel beckoned ahead. We both noticeably picked up our pace.

"Say," I realized. "I forgot to ask. What's your name?"

"Aera."

_Interesting name. Wonder where she got it._

"And yours?" she asked after a moment's pause.

_What is my name?_

Before I had a chance to explain my inability to recall the designation for myself, we reached the light.

We stepped out of the fetid, dark sewers and into a well lit room filled with about thirty or so people. Most of them were dressed in civilian clothing, but a few here and there wore armor and hefted weapons. Swords, pickaxes, _axes_, shovels, bows, shears. Most of them ignored our sudden entry, but two of the warrior types walked up.

"So Aera, you brought back another helper?" one began.

"Er, yeah, I did. Are we ready to move yet?" she asked.

"Almost. Preparations are almost complete. Glad to see you brought some aid. Good work." he said, and tossed a slice of fresh melon to Aera. He and the other man then moved off.

I shot her a look.

"What? If we do good stuff, we get rewarded. Truth to tell, I don't really like melons all that much."

"Does that mean I can have it?" I asked, mouth-watering slightly. I don't know why, but it struck me that the melon looked _delicious._

"No!"

Sighing, I pulled out the apple I had scavenged earlier from my backpack. Aera glanced at it longingly.

"Oh, and now you want _my _food?" I asked. Looking down at my apple, I was not appetized by the sight. It didn't look as tasty as her melon.

We both looked each other in the eyes. Finally, I spoke the thought on both of our minds.

"Trade?"

"I thought you'd never ask." Aera smiled as we traded our food items.

_Man am I hungry. This sure looks tasty._

I bit into the melon, and I swear, it was amazing. It could be that it was the first food I had eaten since waking up on that beach, but it was delicious.

I took a break from my furious eating to look over and see Aera attacking her apple with equal gusto.

Finally, we both finished our food. Still hungry, I fished around in my backpack and pulled out one of my packaged cookies. Breaking it in half, I offered a piece to Aera.

She looked at me. "You're just giving me food?"

"Why not? I reasoned, biting off a piece of my half. "Come on, it ain't gonna eat itself. Last chance!"

"Oh stop it. Of course I'll take it." she smirked, and snatched it out of my hand. "Haven't had one of these since I started helping these refugees . . ."

Watching her take a bite out of the cookie, her face changed. Expectantly, I asked "How is it?

She looked at me, smiled, and then leaned over and hugged me tightly. Surprised, I awkwardly hugged back, my nose getting tickled by long strands of her coarse, unkept brown hair.

Finally we broke apart. "Uh, I take it that you liked it?" I asked.

"Liked it? _Liked it!?_ You're the best person EVER!" she exclaimed, chomping down on the rest of the cookie. "That was awesome!"

I looked around.

_How could my situation change so much in so little time? What a great discovery this was._

"Say, what did you mean by 'Are we ready to move yet'?" I asked finally.

"We can't stay here forever. We are planning to get out of here and go east. Maybe Portsmouth, or Romero, or Cirma, or any of the other cities are still holding out against the zombies. It's a dangerous trip, though."

"Yeah, no kidding." I sighed, letting the names of those cities sink in.

Suddenly, a cry rose from another tunnel that led into the room. I had smelled salt air wafing in from it, and had guessed it led to the sea. "Sea Raiders!"

"Sea Raiders? What are those?" I asked Aera.

A mask of worry descended on her face. "They're bandits. Really good bandits. Not good in that their nice, but good in th-"

"Yes, yes, please get on with it." I interrupted. "Sorry." I added a second later.

"They sail up and down the coast in ships, raiding. I guess they found us. One disadvantage of having this place near the water, I guess." she replied.

"So what now?"

Before Aera could answer, the man that had spoke to her yelled out some commands. "Guys! We have to evacuate! People with weapons, get to that tunnel and try and hold them off! Everyone else head up the escape tunnel! _Move!_"

One of the warriors near us muttered under his breath "This is suicide . . ." and ran down the escape tunnel. With a chill, I realized most of the people with weapons were running away.

"Come back here!" Aera yelled.

"Cowards." I growled.

I looked around. All who were left to buy time were me, Aera, the leader, and the other guy who had walked up to us, evidently his deputy.

There I caught my first glimpse of Sea Raiders. They were clothed and armed with a huge armor and weapons, but one thing was certain: They were a lot better than us. And there were twenty five of them.

Aera gulped audibly. I fidgeted with my pickaxe handle, and the deputy looked around wildly.

An arrow whizzed down the tunnel, and careened off a rock to the left of us.

"Lets go." Our leader growled.

**Yikes. Good luck everyone, you're gonna need it. Not going to say anything about the next chapter, but it will be coming out probably before Thanksgiving Break ends. The chapter after that might come soon as well.**

**Please, please, please, PLEASE review! Do it! Even if all you say is "Good Job" or "This sucks", it means you guys care about me and my story!**

**Tell your friends! Tell your enemies! And till next time . . .**

**R&R!**


	5. The End?

**Heh, last chapter was mostly nice and fluffy. THIS chapter will be rather more exciting. And cliffhangish. And short. **

The leader of the small group looked Aera and myself over once.

"Thank you so much for staying guys. If I die – run. Just run." he said sadly.

_That's not the greatest mood for going into a fight . . ._

I dove behind a pile of rubble. Aera was right behind me, and we stayed low as arrows from the Sea Raiders whizzed above us. Aera drew back her bowstring, and popped up and fired an arrow at the Raiders. I peeked up over the makeshift barrier, only to see the badly aimed arrow completely miss our attackers.

Aera cursed under her breath. "I can't get a clear shot!" she growled.

I leaned down and scooped up a large board just lying there on the ground, and held it up. Aera immediately caught on, and got up, peeking out, carefully aiming where she would shoot one of her few remaining arrows.

"Now." she breathed, and I moved the board out of her way. She let the arrow fly, and it dug into the shoulder of the nearest raider. He screamed, and fell out of view.

The Raiders finally realized that there was only one of us with a bow, and they charged us in a wave. Our leader was the only one of us to meet their charge head on, and he screamed as he was hacked apart by a dozen different cutting surfaces. The deputy was next, as he started to run away he was floored by a single arrow that imbedded itself in his neck.

_Holy crap. We're so dead._

Without a word between us, Aera and I turned and started sprinting down the tunnel.

We sprinted into the room, and gratifyingly enough all the refugees had successfully fled down one of the many side tunnels. Aera started for it.

_Hold on. That isn't a smart idea._

_"_Aera, hold on! If we go down that tunnel, they'll follow us straight to the refugees! We can't go that way!" I hissed.

"But where do we go!?" she hissed back.

Before we could continue, the Sea Raiders stormed into the room.

_It's all over._

"Goodbye, Aera." I whispered.

She looked up to the ceiling. "Notch help us. . ." she prayed. She turned to me. "Goodbye

I shut my eyes, and a moment later I felt Aera's hand grasp my own.


	6. Xavier the Scout

**Hey guys! Sorry about the huge wait. Really, there's no excuse. I just got back from Christmas Break . . . with only one chapter . . . meh.**

**Anyways, I'm back! I've mostly been working on this new original novel temporarily titled Alone, and its up to 4,500 words, but I finally got around to finishing up his chapter. So sorry, please forgive me. And review!**

**So, without further ado, here is chapter six! Drum roll please!**

***drum rolls across the floor***

**. . . . . er, ignore that . . . . . **

I stood there, holding Aera's hand, waiting for the Raiders to end our lives.

_I hope they make it end quickly._

I was confused when I didn't feel the shock of a sword stabbing through me. I opened my eyes, and let go of Aera's hand rather regretfully as I lifted my pickaxe.

The Raiders had formed a circle around us. A hole opened up in their ranks, and one man stepped out. He was obviously their leader, and wore an iron chestplate, had an iron helmet, and held a gleaming iron sword tightly in his hands.

He just stood there in front of us, practically daring us to take a swipe at him. Time seemed to stand still as everyone waited for someone to do something.

"What do want from us?" Aera finally asked, in a quiet, raspy voice.

The leader simply smiled. "Practice." he said, and lunged at us sword held above his head.

As of one mind, Aera and I split up in opposite directions. "Get him, Jack!" one of the Raiders shouted. Jack, as I now called him, went for Aera. She cried out as she dropped to the ground to avoid the slice of his word, and she cut her arm badly on a chunk of stone. She screamed.

Hearing Aera scream snapped me back to reality. Time slowed down as she scrambled away from Jack, only to face jeering Raiders everywhere.

_God dammit! No! Not like this!_

I frantically glanced around. And I saw it.

_The ceiling. It's weak. _

I saw one of the few supports in the room just behind the wall of Raiders. Desperate, I started sprinting toward one of them, pickaxe swinging. It just bounced off the Raiders' shields. I coiled up, and shoved the Raider backwards by his shield. He fell into the support beam, and broke it in two.

_It worked! It actually wor-_

My thoughts ceased as the ceiling began to crash down. Everything went black.

* * *

I began to stir. My brain was being bombarded by a virtual tidal-wave of sensory inputs, yet I was still too disconnected to properly piece them together. Slowly, ever so slowly, my mind began to arrange them in a satisfactory manner.

Dazed, I slowly glanced around from my position of being sprawled across the floor. Odd shapes were scattered in front of me; some groaning and moving about, some not. They were Sea Raiders, but I failed to realize that yet. Then I saw Aera coughing from the cloud of dust raised by the collapse, and my thoughts snapped into place.

_We need to get out of here. _

Nothing else crossed my mind. I had enough sense to grab my pickaxe and backpack, both lying on the ground beside me. Struggling to my feet, I hobbled over to Aera, grasped her arm, and pulled her up.

"We need to get out of here," she muttered.

"Yeah, I know," I agreed, helping her stumble away from the stunned Raiders, "they'll start getting up soon. Let's just take what we can off them, and get out."

As I said this, I reached down and grabbed a backpack off a downed Raider. Aera punched me in the gut.

"Ow!" I exclaimed, "What was that for?!"

"Shhh!" she said, putting her finger to my mouth. "Zombies. We need to go now! Can't stop for anything." As she spoke, she started heading for the nearing exit.

She was right. No way the zombies in Grimdale had ignored the massive crash of the ceiling collapsing, and now a gaping hole up above would let them get right at us.

Still refusing to loosen my hold on the stolen pack, I followed Aera through the debris-filled room. I noticed that she was swiping arrows off of Raiders.

_Oh God. _

Zombies started jumping down from the ground level into the room. They started ripping downed Raiders apart, but other Raiders were already up and fighting. We kept running, and the zombies did not follow. Screams and horrific crunching echoed behind us. Nothing mattered to me at the moment beside the frantic pumping of my legs, and the narrow confines of the corridor.

* * *

Several minutes later, we finally climbed out of the sewers, and into the sunlight. As luck would have it, the remnants of the refugee group that had fled before us were hiding nearby, but doing a terrible job at it. Everyone still appeared to be in shock. A few faces were new, though, and I walked up to them.

They were three soldiers. But lower-rank ones it appeared, as they were equipped with bulky dried leather shirts as armor, and what appeared to be swords made of some rock.

_Who the hell are they?_

"Hey, you're one of the guys who those refugees said stayed behind!" the first soldier exclaimed, reaching out to shake my hand. He was tall and powerfully built, and was at least several years older than me, by my inaccurate reckoning.

I took it. "Yeah, that would be me," I confirmed.

"Well, welcome back! Sorry we weren't there to help, but we were out scavenging for food. We're the scouts. I'm Herod, this is my brother Verod, and the short fellow over there is Jarin. Who are you, might I ask?"

_Who am I?_

Again stumped on the subject of my own name, I decided to go for the truth. "To be honest, I can't remember."

Herod took it in stride. "Oh really? I'll call you Xavier, then." he said.

"Xavier?" I asked. It wasn't that I didn't like that name; in fact, it sounded rather nice, but how did he come up with it so easily?

"Yeah. I've always wanted to know someone named that." he explained sheepishly, grinning.

_Not the best reasons for getting a name, but I'll take it._

Aera walked up. "Hey, guys, the refugees just elected a new leader!"

"Let me guess. It was you?" I asked.

"No silly," she said, pushing me away playfully, "they wanted Herod!"

Again, Herod took the news calmly.

_Is there anything that guy isn't prepared for?_

"Then my first act is to appoint you, Xavier, Jarin, and Verod as our defence force. I want actually brave people next time Sea Raiders or God knows what else shows up." he pronounced.

Aera frowned, saying "Who's Xavier?"

I stepped forward. "That would be me, madam," I said, taking a bow.

"Ok. Cool. Herod, who are going to be our new scouts? We'll still need supplies, and we need to know what's ahead." she asked.

"I volunteer." I said.

_Why did I just say that? That was really random. Ah well, what's done is done._

Everyone just looked at me. Jarin slowly said, "You know, the last two scouts never came back. You sure you want to do this?"

Feeling my resolve firm up, I replied, "Absoloutely. Anything to help."

"Very well," Herod said, "be safe. Come back in a few days, ok? We'll be travelling behind you, just slower. If you see any danger, come back early and warn us. If you find any good supplies for our group, salvage them. Oh, and if you see a ship tell me. That'll be the best way of getting around. Got that?"

"Yup. See you," I said.

Aera grabbed my arm before I could turn to leave. "Come back, got it?" she nearly whispered.

"Got it." I said, and strode out into the fading sunlight.

**So that's that. Expect a slightly darker turn in the story, plus much shorter update times, hopefully. **

**Until next time, R&R . . . . . . well, actually just _&R, 'cause Read and Review is a fairly redundant statement, since to see this you've already _read_ the story . . . so just review!**

**EpicPwner333 out!**


End file.
